Luna Guthrie

I imagine there are a select few out there whose taste in comedy earnestly leans towards the likes of dadaism, and they might find actual humor in this almost anti-comedic story. There are perhaps a few more who will get the odd sensible chuckle out of the movie and forget it ever existed within a month.

Through Wang's astute direction, some moving performances, and well-rounded vision, it is just as provocative as it needs to be, while making for a very entertaining watch.

Dolly is a miss of considerable proportions.

With its depth, style, and surprisingly outlandish ending, Night Patrol is the latest feather in Long's mightily-quilled cap.

It settles into a steady rhythm by the halfway point, and goes against the grain of your average survival thriller by emphasizing just how brutal and unfeeling nature is, regardless of how big and strong you are.

Rosemead is an absorbing and thoroughly heartbreaking movie that deals blow after grievous blow to its audience, and Lucy Liu is just astounding.

Ultimately, My Secret Santa feels like one of the more forgettable Christmas movies of the year. It is not funny or wacky enough to appeal to kids the way Doubtfire does, and it isn't charming or thoughtful enough to appeal to adults.

The thoroughly entertaining villains should have played more of a role, as should the store, and the material should have been more comedy-focused and delivered by actors with more of a knack for it. Once this heist was over, they could have spun it out into sequels, where each year a new operation got underway. It's a shame that this one falls so flat.

Sutherland truly is the star here, and he holds the movie in the palm of his hand. Between the self-deprecating humor and the 110% effort he puts into a silly British Christmas movie, he creates a really friendly and inviting vibe that just radiates off the screen.

The movie is full of trees, lights, snow, and all the aesthetic trimmings of a Christmas movie, but there's a coziness behind all the seasonal artifice that radiates from the screen, and that, surely, can only be down to the right combination of people having a whale of a time together.

I Wish You All The Best is a triumph on everybody's part.

Stitch Head has the vibe of a teenager trying to reach the minimum word count on an essay: as long as it gets done on time, then that's the main thing.

There is a lot that the movie does so right, which is why its various faux pas feel that much more disappointing, but this is far from an overall failure. It's a sign of great things to come from Williams and from The Horror Section.

It's funny, it's zany, it looks good, and has some really great character work going for it, but it probably would have turned out better as a product of the 20th century.

Bone Lake isn't heavy or particularly meditative with its themes of sexual repression, mismatched couplings, and people's absolute failure to efficiently communicate with each other, but it gives us just enough to pad out an amusing framework and make us wonder where it's all headed.

It takes a tale as old as time, adorns it with the accoutrements of soft body horror, and ultimately tells the audience members to keep their chins up; that they have the power to break through these societally-inflicted ideas about self-worth.

For Rocky fans, this is a brilliant chronicle of the history of a perfect show, with plenty of the humor, heart, and zest for life you'd expect. In a broader sense, it is a fascinating examination of cultural lightning in a bottle, how to exploit it, and which pitfalls to avoid.

It's an engrossing thriller that reels you in with its unconventionality and offers up something different in a largely uniform genre.

This is a movie made perfectly for those viewers who are somewhere between childhood and adulthood, and it understands them. It throws just enough of life's nastiness at them without making it too overwhelming or hopeless, and it has a real comprehension of how teens often feel: misunderstood and unsupported by those around them, but not in that stereotypical "get outta my room, Mom!" way.

If a movie is going to give us a man reuniting with his dad and them coming to love each other, then it needs to give them the freedom to really hash it out and explore the consequences of their estrangement. Looking Through Water only skims the surface.

Strassner and Larsen are an absolute delight to watch, and this is the kind of movie that indie cinema is all about.

The fifth installment of a beloved modern horror franchise proves that it's losing steam.

It's a relentless ghost train of a movie that blinds you with its color, deafens you with its chaos, and pushes you to hysterics with its overabundance of silly, splatter-filled action.

An eerie, well-acted stroll along the well-trodden path of pregnancy horror.

A scathing documentary about the price of fame and honest artistry.

The pacing and comedy feel like they slow down a little at the beginning of the third act, but Ick is largely a very entertaining, engrossing, and endearing take on a classic staple of mid-century sci-fi horror, reworked for the 2020s.

A messy, confusing and thoroughly unengaging experiment, with the kernel of a good idea underneath.

Disney Channel's latest sequel has all the bells and whistles, but not much in the way of substance.

Don't Tell Larry feels like it really should have been a half-hour episode of a television sitcom rather than a movie.

This is a truly immersive experience that makes the best use of every element of filmmaking, and it all comes together to create a uniquely chilling horror.

[Tina Romero's] feature directorial debut, Queens of the Dead, takes the basics of what her dad is fondly remembered for and spins it off in its own distinct style. She is most certainly a Romero in her filmmaking, but you'd never mistake Queens of the Dead for her father's work.

A razor-sharp, emotionally-devastating crime thriller where the stakes are high, and chances of justice are low.

For a horror-comedy, it's not funny, and it's not scary. It's a very strange amalgamation of little drops of each of these things, heavily diluted within what is largely a romantic drama, and as such, every time it tries to be funny or scary, it feels out of place and uncomfortable.

It's not a perfect horror movie, but it has all the right ingredients and is such a great way for someone who enjoys the rougher things in life to spend 90 minutes.

It's not breaking any new ground, but Prom Queen is a solid enough teen slasher that does a nice job of continuing the ever-expanding universe of R.L. Stine.

Eubank's direction has a tenderness for its characters and for the little worlds they build around themselves, bursting full of hopes and dreams that we really want to see them achieve.

Chaos ensues, dozens of better movies are ripped off, and despite a few fun kills, it leaves you feeling not very much of anything.

It is about as standard a Western as you can imagine, one that hits all the narrative beats and clichés expected of the genre, but the technical quality of it is undeniable, bolstered by gorgeous cinematography, strong performances, and a really impressive turn from its child star, Patrick Scott McDermott.

It's a cluttered mess of a movie that should have scaled back, stuck to the basics, and delivered what we were all hoping for: over-the-top ratty carnage.

With everybody understanding the assignment, Bears on a Ship is truly one of those movies you can relax and have fun with.

Dead Mail is a rock-solid crime thriller horror.

There's definite potential in Andy Edwards. He needs to up the camp and spend a little longer at the drawing board, streamlining his vision and considering what he wants to do with his next project. Whatever it ends up being, I look forward to seeing it.

The movie shines the brightest, harshest light on Kaufman, and still ends up seeing nothing more than a silhouette. What was it all about? We may never know, but Thank You Very Much is about as close as we may get.

There is a simplistic charm to the movie that captures the strange in-between times of the early 2000s.

Locked is a really slick, tightly-spun crime thriller that seems to take a good deal of inspiration from Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth.

The Parenting, which boasts an impressive cast including Brian Cox, Parker Posey, and Edie Falco, takes itself just seriously enough to maintain the impact of both the horror and the comedy, and while it doesn't end up being the most original or breathtaking thing you ever saw, it makes for a fun ride with a lot of character and plenty of heart.

Everybody who worked on Green and Gold brought their A-game and made what could have been your run-of-the-mill drama into a truly sublime movie.

The movie hangs on the nuances of Cantor's performance, but it never seems to come together.

The emotional core of the story relies strongly on the performances of Cholbi, Falé, and Gueneau, who turn in wonderful performances that don't need loud outbursts or explosive arguments.

It is not a movie with the intention of entertaining its audience, but rather of challenging, reminding, and warning.